


Phoenix

by kay_emm_gee



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Drabble, F/M, Falling In Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-27
Updated: 2015-05-27
Packaged: 2018-04-01 14:16:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4022971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_emm_gee/pseuds/kay_emm_gee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wick, Raven, her smile, and the fire it lights inside him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phoenix

There were good reasons open flames were not allowed on the Ark. The tight quarters, the various tanks of oxygen, the lack of extinguishing supplies made fire dangerous in space. Wick had learned all the safety procedures in his training classes, been forced to memorize the punishments for using blowtorches or similar tools without approval. As an engineer, he himself did not plan on working with fire often, and so he thought he didn’t have to worry too much about getting burned.

Then, he saw Raven Reyes smile, and wondered how in the hell he was supposed to avoid a flame as enticing and dangerous as that, or the trouble it could get him into. Not that she smiled at him in particular much. Whenever she entered the engineering room, her fast, biting, fractious words sparked in the warm air, creating friction. Wick couldn’t help feeding the flames, spiting out his own challenges in response. The way her dark eyes flashed defiantly made him grin, but she would just grimace at him in return. He only saw her smile with the other mechanics, or the floppy-haired neighbor kid. Still, every time he managed to catch a glimpse of her like that—happy, carefree—it was as if all the air got sucked out of his lungs. His throat burned, the fire in that curve of her lips consuming everything inside him. The scorching only stopped when he heard her laugh, the joyous, bubbling sound raining down on him like cool drops of water.

When the spacewalker got locked up, it was like a drought descended on the Ark. Raven was no longer warm kindling, or a friendly flame; she was a forest fire, a volcano spewing molten rock, her sneers leaving charred ashes in their wake. Still, Wick didn’t care that she threw cruel, vicious, third-degree-burn words his way; they hurt him, sure, but she was hurting more, so he took the heat. And the emptiness he saw behind the fire roaring in her eyes every time he got in her way only made him more determined to not let her scare him off. He wanted to help her tame those furious flames, to bring back the girl who sparked, instead of this one who just burned uncontrollably.

She was a charred ruin when he saw her on the ground. No less smart, no less strong, no less beautiful, but a ruin nonetheless. Her fire had flamed out, even with all the unregulated oxygen and the miles of dry wood around them. The weight of the world had smothered her spark, and not even his better-than-thou comments could ignite it. Wick saw shadows of it— _your damn brace sucks_ —but those sightings just made him feel chilled; he couldn’t imagine how cold it was for her.

All Wick learned about fire was for life on the Ark, where things don’t grow back after they burn. On the ground, though, he learns something else: from ashes rises new life. He sees it in the way a soft glow flickers in Raven’s clouded eyes, her wan face growing rosy as her mouth curves into something he has never seen up close before. She smiles at him ( _at him_ ), then shouts out the name of the gas he just ingested. Stunned, he fires a matching name back. Her smiles twists, and it doesn’t matter if in this moment Raven thinks he is an idiot, because there’s a warmth in her face, her movements, her very being again, and damn if that isn’t the best thing Wick has seen since her first smile set him alight all those years ago.


End file.
